Manatees and their relatives, the dugongs, are in the family Sirenia, which in turn is a distant relative of the elephants. In addition to sharing the characteristic of longevity, manatees and elephants are some of the largest and heaviest vertebrates. Snooty weighs in at nearly 1300 pounds and is over 9 feet long.
To celebrate, keepers gave Snooty a treat of pineapples and strawberries.
It’s Deep-Sea Coral Week over at the Deep-Sea News blog, from April 27-May 3. It’s worth a look, with many interesting posts already up and many more to come each day.
Coral Reefs and Creatures of the Deep Sea
One of the podcasts I enjoy listening to is the Naked Scientists. Back on 23rd April 2006 they did a show featuring not only deep sea corals but giant squid too. It’s two great tastes that go great together, and you can check it out yourself. Skip the boring stuffastrophysics at the beginning and forward the transport controls to minute 32:00 to hear the interesting stuff.
Delving into the dark depths of science this week is Dr Ron Douglas from City University in London, who describes the fascinating world of deep sea fish, bioluminescence and the sights from a deep sea sub, Dr Jason Hall-Spencer from the University of Plymouth talks about cold water corals and the threats posed by fishermen, and from slightly warmer waters Dr David Kline from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama reveals how Caribbean corals are suffering due to sugar pollution. Also in the show, Fran Beckerleg interviews John Ablett at the Natural History Museum in London about a giant squid called Archie, and getting the low down on the high seas, Derek Thorne finds out how a submarine works in Kitchen Science.
The NY Times recently did an article on soniferous fishes. These are animals like drums and toadfish that produce, and presumably communicate, with sound. In some circumstances, these noises can be heard by home owners living on canals or live-aboard boats.
However, there is a quote in the article from Professor Philip Lobel from Boston University that annoys (a noise?) me:
Yet of the 30,000 species out there, only about 1,200 sound producers have been cataloged, and far fewer have been recorded. Even common goldfish have merited just two scientific publications. In fact, said Philip Lobel, a professor of biology at Boston University, “Most aquarium fish are sonic. Keeping fish in an aquarium is like keeping a canary in a soundproof cage.”
Have you ever pressed your ear against a home aquarium? It’s typically a din of bubblers and impellers that are anything but noiseless. I’ve wondered what kind of effect that has on the captive fish. And now doubly so if it turns out the creatures are trying to communicate with each other over the racket.
NY Times: Run Noisy, Run Deep, and interactive piece that lets you listen to the noise of soniferous fish, including the fast repetitive ticks (FaRTs) of herring.
Earth Day is coming up on April 22 and the fine folks over at the Worldbridges.net community are celebrating by hosting a 24 hour webcast focused on the environment. Earthcast 2008 will feature live, interactive programs from educators, students and other citizens of the planet starting at midnight GMT.
The Other 71%
I am planning on covering one of the hours with a program focused on the other 71% of our planet’s surface. Guests for the program include Dr. Karen James from the Beagle Project and Kevin Zelnio of Deep-Sea News and The Other 95%. I also have feelers out to a few other ocean bloggers. If you know of anyone else who would like to join the conversation, let me know. More details on how to participate will be posted here in the coming days. Stay tuned.
What: This is intended to be a 24 hour long conversation about the health of our planet. We hope to have participants from around the world moderate an day long conversation. Potential guests could include local leaders, student environmental advocates, scientists/engineers, politicians, grassroots leaders, etc.
When: Tuesday, April 22nd 2008. We will follow the 24 hour GMT day (we’ll use the time in Greenwich, England as the standard for planning the time blocks).
Why: The goal is to help our participants (both listeners and moderators) form a more global perspective on the issue of sustainability and the health of the earth.
This is a difficult decision, but I’ve been thinking about making some serious changes to the focus of this Web site. As you may have noticed, I have not been especially productive in the output of actual podcasts. I finally realized the problem was with the name. For whatever reason, I settled on cephalopods as a mascot and icon for this site. I thought the name was clever. I thought cephalopods were cool. It was a mistake. As my buddy Lirpa Sloof said, crustaceans are really the coolest creatures in the sea (and by extension, so are all arthropods). So I am officially changing the name of the site to the Arthropodcast. This will have several advantages.
First, the recent Invertebrate Wars have made me realize that neither group of organisms (echinoderms or molluscs) really captures the imagination and hearts of ocean enthusiasts. I think people are much more excited and interested in the arthropods, especially terrestrial ones like insects and spiders. This name change will also make it easier for folks to get the pun in the title (i.e., it’s a podcast about arthropods).
Second, arthropods are more abundant and diverse than both molluscs and echinoderms combined. As I mentioned, they are also masters of both land and sea. Compare this to the other two groups. There are no living examples of terrestrial echinoderms. There is only a rare fossil specimen of an arboreal urchin, but that species died out with the tree ferns. Also, the few examples of terrestrial mollusks are pretty pathetic, consisting of only a hand full of thin-shelled snails. True, there are rumors of an arboreal cephalopod, but most of those sightings can be ascribed to Bigfoot chasers high on mescaline and urchin envy.
So there you have it. My rationale for changing this Web site. It will take me a little while to make all the necessary changes. But I hope you will agree it’s for the better.
*I also briefly considered calling it the Isopodcast, but quickly realize that was in fact too obscure.
Oh, this is clever. I might try making some of these to go with the cat litter cake. There seems to be a blog idea in this, in food that looks like science. Paging Dr. Kiki.
I’ve had a few microbiology classes and cultured many different types of bacteria on different media, and I happened to have a case of pyrex Petri dishes from an old surplus buy (relax, they were unused) so I thought it would be fun to make dessert that looked like bacterial cultures served in Petri dishes! I prepared the media (jello, tapioca pudding, and lemon pie filling) and Alex did most of the decorating. This should be good for a Halloween party or a creepy movie night with friends. They might go well with bowls of gummy worms served on ground-up Oreo cookie dirt.
The Association of Zoos and Aquariums will highlight 2008 as the Year of the Frog to mark a major conservation effort to address the amphibian extinction crisis. The Year of the Frog is also meant to engage the public in amphibian conservation and to raise funds for AZA amphibian conservation efforts into the future.
Look, listen, and learn: educate yourself and your family about amphibians.
Visit an Association of Zoos and Aquariums-accredited institutions near you and experience your very own amphibian adventure!
Create amphibian friendly environments by providing clean water, hiding places, and insects to eat.
Don’t pollute.
Be a responsible pet owner.
Conserve water at home, school, and work.
Reduce the use of fossil fuels, such as oil, coal and natural gas.
Be an amphibian champion.
Growing up on a lake in Florida, we had a lot of opportunities to witness amphibian activity. During the wet season there was a solid wall of noise coming from the passionate anurans in the pastures. It was not something you would hear so much as feel. Soon, the lake edge was strung with the black beads of toad eggs. And later, we could gather pollywogs by the handful. I have to wonder what it would be like if I ever went back there.
The difference between frogs and toads might seem obvious at first. Frogs are hoppers with long legs and wet skin. Toads are walkers with dry skin. But as my herpetology professor pointed out, there are exceptions to each of these and the distinction between frogs and toads amongst the experts is not so clear. For instance, the suborder of spadefoot toads (Mesobatrachia) also includes the parsley frogs.
Recently on This Week in Science, Justin and Dr. Kiki were commenting on the recent discovery of a very large amphibian fossil in Madagascar, appropriately dubbed Beelzebufo (at approximately minute 00:23:29). They ran into this same kind of consternation.
How to Tell a Turtle from a Tortoise is a book that also talks about the difference between frogs and toads. Remarkable moreso because it is the first book that I have ever come across that is not available on Amazon.
Second, is called the Deep Earth Academy, which is the education arm of their scientific ocean drilling program. In addition to resources to teach climate change and Activities of the Month, they have a free color poster for middle and high school students that shows what an oceanic survey cruise looks like and what kinds of information scientist gain from them.
…this (Anatomy of a Seamount Survey) poster shows the ship’s track, 3D bathymetry plots from the survey, and images from the ship’s dredging operations. On the poster’s reverse side are included: background information on site surveys, mini-profiles of some of the expedition’s key personnel, and four science challenges for middle school students.
The Consortium for Ocean Leadership is seeking an enthusiastic teacher for a one-year fellowship in Washington, DC. The teacher will work with DeepEarth Academy staff to develop ocean science curricula, produce teacher-training workshops, maintain communication within a community of educators and assist with conference logistics. The position requires a minimum of 3 years classroom science teaching experience, a strong background in earth or ocean sciences, and temporary relocation to Washington, DC. Strong writing and computer technology skills are a plus. Salary will be commensurate to incumbent¹s current salary. Full time and part-time schedules will be considered.
To apply for the position, send a cover letter, resume, curriculum sample or list of professional development offerings and three letters of reference to learning@oceanleadership.org or mail to Deep Earth Academy, 1201 New York Avenue NW, 4th floor, Washington, DC, 20005 by Monday, March 3, 2008. For more information visit www.deepearthacademy.org
Finally, the COL is also hosting a number of events from February 25-29, billing it as 2008 Washington Ocean Week. This is not to be confused with the other Ocean Week in June.
With the release of the President’s budget earlier in the month and the appropriations season in full swing, this is a critical time for the oceanographic community to sound its voice in the nation’s capitol.
Carnival of the Blue #9 is up at Kevin’s Other 95% blog. Billed as a “appreciation of the under-appreciated majority of life,” the blog is devoted to all the interesting things on earth that lack a backbone.
In addition to highlighting some of the best in ocean blogging this month, Kevin also reminds everyone to live blue in 2008.
I first came across Australian cartoonist Phil Watson back in late 2006. I reckon his work is on par with the likes of Toomey. Now it looks like he has since teamed up with the Mall of America and their Underwater Adventures Aquarium in Bloomington, MN. This must be a good thing because he is turning from one-off one-panels to full blown animated shorts. Some of them are quite topically amusing, managing to poke fun at Paris Hilton, Damien Hirst, Steve Jobs and the like. But here’s one of my favorites, since it also features a cephalopod:
Our discussion will be initially be focused on the following:
- Using blogs as a tool in Science, Conservation and Marine Education
- Blogs as filters of novel research and synthesizers of concepts
- Communicating Marine Science to the public via blogs (including podcasting and video blogs) to increasing public awareness of Ocean Science and related issues (i.e. who reads marine biology blogs and why).
- Blogging from the field as a method to communicate the scientific method, how research is done and what its like to be a scientist
- The multifaceted constraints of blogging in the field and to what extent blogging does or does not represent the organization you work for.
This is in an unconference format, so everyone who attends the event is encouraged to be an active participant in all of the sessions and discussions.
Also, depending on the bandwidth capabilites available, I will attempt to stream the presentation.
Some of the kids over at Metafilter are suggesting that today is Giant Squid Day. Others suspect it maybe Cloverfield virality. Either way, get your ink on over here:
Cephalopodcast.com - The Ocean Podcast: Featuring science education and information about our oceans. Produced in south Florida, it includes news and ideas for marine educators and those who wish to learn more about the other 71% of our planet.
![Carnival Of The Blue logo, a blue sphere half-filled with water. [100x100, 7K]](http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1148/531775421_125285bc74_t.jpg "Carnival Of The Blue")
![Unofficial Earthcast Web badge/logo, planet with headphones and microphone, speach balloons, 24 hour webcastathon, 22 April 2008, edtechtalk.com [250x285, 84K]](http://cephalopodcast.com/img/earthcast08.png "Earthcast 2008")
![Jello in petri dishes that looks like bacteria cultures []](http://cephalopodcast.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/pic-080320-rehorst.jpg)
![Best of Ocean Blogging [75x75, 4.8K]](http://cephalopodcast.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/pic-cotb95.jpg "Carnival of the Blue, The Best of Ocean Blogging")
Jason Robertshaw
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